Harris' killer gets 22 years

GOSHEN — Her name was Alexis Olivia Harris, and she was 20 when a man who was supposed to love her beat her to death.

BY HEATHER YAKIN

GOSHEN — Her name was Alexis Olivia Harris, and she was 20 when a man who was supposed to love her beat her to death.

On Thursday in Orange County Court, her killer, boyfriend Yannick Evina-Ze, 31, was sentenced to 22½ years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in her July 21 death in Newburgh.

But before Judge Jeffrey Berry posed the sentence, Alexis' mother, Anne Harris, demanded that Evina-Ze look at her, to see the pain he caused when he fatally beat Alexis.

"My life was taken that night and my world rearranged," she told him. "Seeing him and knowing what he did to my girl brings me to my knees. I am sickened to my core."

Harris was accompanied by Alexis' close friends, Christine Pagliaro and Astrid Robles, and a crowd of family and friends. Evina-Ze's mother and a handful of supporters sat on the opposite side of the courtroom gallery.

Harris spoke about adopting Alexis as a baby from Bolivia, about raising her — their "Alexis Olivia from Bolivia," stubborn and sweet, loving and loved. Alexis wanted to help Evina-Ze improve his life, too, Harris said.

A month before he killed her, Harris said, Evina-Ze attended church with her and Alexis. The sermon was about abuse.

"I remember him saying to me at the end of the service, 'I got a lot out of that,' " she recounted. "I guess not. My daughter was dead less than a month later."

There is no justice for what he took away, Harris said; Evina-Ze will end up serving about as much time in prison as Alexis was alive.

"I hope her killer is haunted for the rest of his days by the smiling, brilliant and talented girl he took from her family and friends, my girl, who never had a chance to live," Harris said.

Senior District Attorney Neal Haberman told the judge that the presentencing investigation concluded that Evina-Ze was at high risk for violence, and moderate to high risk to reoffend. The report called him "a formidable and dangerous presence in the community," Haberman said.

Evina-Ze's lawyer told the judge his client regrets his actions, and that he has the potential to become a better man.

"I stand here remorseful and ashamed," Evina-Ze told the court. "What I did was senseless, cruel and unimaginable. She didn't deserve this. No one deserves this."

Evina-Ze said Alexis Harris was the most caring person he has ever known, and her mother was always kind to him. "And in return, I brought you nothing but heartache and sorrow," he said. "It makes me feel like the worst person on earth."

He apologized to his own family, "especially to my mother, who raised me to know better and to do better."

Berry imposed the 22½-year sentence, calling Harris' death one of the most senseless and brutal cases he has seen. He encouraged Evina-Ze to seek out other inmates in prison to tell them the terrible price of giving in to the influence of jealous rage, alcohol and drugs; perhaps by doing so, he can save someone else.

After court, Anne Harris said there will be no closure, but perhaps now her healing can begin. She'll advocate for victims of domestic violence.